Please help me figure out tomorrow's dinner

I am in a major crunch time at work. No time to shop, barely time to eat, let alone cook or devote the brain power to planning anything nutritious. So please help me figure out something quick that's possible to make from what I own when I finally get home late (again) tomorrow night.

What I have on hand:

1 cup frozen peas
1 bag frozen broccoli
1 tub frozen Bueno extra hot green chile
brown rice
arborio rice
wild rice
barley
bulgur
fettuccine
glass noodles
oatmeal
sun-dried tomatoes
5 eggs
1 pound extra firm tofu
1 head of green cabbage
1 onion
canned mango puree

No cheese, flour, tortillas, bread, or milk. But I do have butter, assorted oils, garlic, ginger, all the usual dried spices, pots of fresh herbs.

Any ideas?

For quick/easy I'd hone in on the fettuccini, peas and/or broccoli, onion and some of that hot green chili stuff!

Stuffed cabbage rolls.

I'd go with either the fettucine idea or risotto.

Pasta Carbonara:

1. In a big bowl, put two egg yolks. Stir a bit, but doesn't have to go pale.
2. In little bowls, have ready some peas, some sun-dried tomato strips, maybe some chunks of tofu, and chopped parsley. Keep your peppermill handy.
3. Boil the fettucine. When it's done, drain really briefly and drop into the big bowl. Toss. (The heat of the pasta will cook the egg.)
4. Add an ingredient and toss, add an ingredient and toss, etc. (Do the parsley and the pepper early on.)

Serve immediately. A glass of wine is good with it.

Use half the onion, the arborio, the butter, and the peas, and make a risotto. You must have some chicken broth there, don't you? In a pinch, use water.
Then take the other half onion, the eggs, some more butter, and the broccoli and sun dried tomatoes and make a frittata.
Use the oatmeal and mango puree and make cookies for dessert.

Or, you could order pizza.

Why don't you just hop a plane and join us at MOCOOL. You won't have to cook.

It's cold here, so I can't think past soup. I'd like a soup made up of lots of those ingredients, maybe some herbs. Could be Asian style soup with the glass noodles, cabbage, tofu and maybe the beaten egg stirred through when it's boiling. Season with stock or soy, maybe? Or a more substantial minestrone style soup with the barley, all the veges, herbs and either the rice in place of pasta, or the fettucine broken into little pieces.

That tends to be our default meal here..

LOL...no cheese or flour, or you wouldn't be asking, would you, Princess?

Throw it all into a slow cooker while you are at work. Come home and see what you've got. My new motto: It can't be THAT bad.

rwj

What no cilantro?!

Tofu Chow mai Fun:

-slice cabbage and onions thin...stir fry in some oil, add, peas and broccoli. Add some grated ginger and minced garlic, and season (and some soy if you have it and like it). Set veggies aside. Next saute some thin slices of tofu in oil until brown. Set tofu aside. Scramble and egg or two and saute...set aside. Add some broth, white wine or water to the saute pan and cook glass noodles until done. Add all other ingredients and heat through.

I also like the Carbonara idea...but with no meat, or cheese, or cream, it might be bland.

Sorry you have to work late again Cynthia! GL with dinner!

What no cilantro?!

Cynthia has defective taste buds and thinks cilantro tastes like soap.

rwj

What Maria said.

Your ingredients shout "Asian Noodle Dish."

LOL Cowboy...I know...I was just busting her chops!

LOL Cowboy...I know...I was just busting her chops!

Me, too, Maria. Me, too.

rwj

Assuming that you've got a variety of interesting sauces in the pantry or fridge, I'd stir-fry the peas, cabbage, broccoli, onion, garlic and tofu, add the sauce of your choice and toss it over the rice of your choice.

Mark Lipton

I also like the Carbonara idea...but with no meat, or cheese, or cream, it might be bland.

I never use cream, anyway, but the others are a big loss. Maybe hit that tofu with a bit of garlic & ginger?

On the other hand, after a long frazzling day, maybe 'bland' isn't so bad. The glass of wine might help, too.

LOL Cowboy.

sorry Jeff...didn't mean to imply that your version would be bland! I didn't read the recipe that followed...just heard Carbonara...should have read further!

[Robin Garr]

These people don't know from time crunches, and they are missing the obvious.

Take the eggs and some of the butter and make an omelet. Mince some ginger and garlic and chop some onion and sautee it before you start the omelet, and if you're really hungry, throw in some tofu dice just as it's starting to set.

These people don't know from time crunches

Thanks for all the great ideas. As it turns out, though, a colleague has suggested that - since it's Friday - we take our work to Tesuque Village Market just down the road from our workplace where they have both wood fired pizza and... pizza wine!

We might even be able to avoid coming back to the office if we do it right.

Just a suggestion, but if you don't haave tome to go shopping, but you have time to browse the Web, don't you have time to shop the web? You could order excellent ingredients to be delivered to your workplace, on ice if need be, with overnight shipping.

WOO HOO on the pizza...it doesn't get better than that.

Just a suggestion, but if you don't haave tome to go shopping, but you have time to browse the Web, don't you have time to shop the web?

Unfortunately, I work for a non-profit. Excellent ingredients overnighted on ice are a bit beyond my budget.

In two weeks this will all be a non-issue anyway. My new group of participants arrive and I will have the wonderful Della to cook for me! One of the perks of the gig... if I'm at work at a mealtime during our regular session, I get fed. Depending on what's on the menu, I stay and work late!